Easy Silence
by Miss Meggie
Summary: DTBH FIC: Leland Fic: Sometimes no matter how scary change is a good thing!


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**AN: I do not know Leland Chapman or anyone related with the show! I mean no harm by anything this is just for fun! I own nothing but my stories and original characters. Enjoy! Please review. -Meghan**

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EASY SILENCE-

CHAPTER ONE-

Leland had been out sick for awhile so when he didn't answer his phone when Duane called he got worried and sent Maui over to check on him.

Outside Leland's house

Maui had been banging on the door for what seemed like forever "Leland open up!" Finally she gave up and used the spare key she knew he kept under the flower pot to her left.

It was silent in the house. She went into the bed room and found him "Leland wake up" she touched him he was burning up when she shook him she got no response she dialed 911

At the hospital

Every one had been waiting for news for hours. Duane lee was flying down now, baby Lyssa and Beth went to the chapel to pray , Duane paced non-stop and Maui tried to keep the boys distracted and worry free.

Awhile later the doctor came out "I'm Dr. Colliard it appears Leland has bacterial meningitis it is serious and can be fatal and most likely would have been had you not found him when you did. The fact that Leland is young and healthy should work in his favor but he's not out of the woods yet he's unconscious and on a ventilator but once the antibiotics start taking effect he should regain consciousness and breathe on his own but we won't know the affect the infection has left on him until he wakes up."

"How'd he contract this?" Beth asked

"Mostly likely he came to contact with someone who had it."

"Is he contagious?" Maui asked

"No he's past that point"

"Will he die?' Dakota inquired softly

"Not if I can help it."

"Can I see him?" Cobie asked

"Sure but there are lots of tubes and stuff attached to him…it doesn't hurt he's not in any pain it just looks scary."

The boys led the way into the room tentatively moving toward the bed where he laid.

"You guys can touch him…it won't hurt anything." Beth told them

Dakota took the left side cobie the right and the held his hands. Duane said a prayer over him.

Three weeks later

When Leland woke up Duane lee was asleep in a chair next him. Leland threw the empty water cup at him to wake him. "Hey bro you're awake that good cause gave us all a scare! Hold on bro I'm getting a nurse. Leland started to freak out it was like his ears were on mute. He grabbed Duane lee's hand as he reached for the call button "Calm down Lee there is a tube your throat I'll get then to take it out. Later when they took tube out what Leland whispered turned Duane lee's blood cold. "I can't hear anything!"

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CHAPTER 2-

Leland was leaving the hospital today. Though he was physically well he was not emotionally well and Duane knew it. Leland has always been most vital and active of all his children and that spark that made Leland who he was fading. his hearing had yet to come back they weren't sure it ever would. Duane feared that learning to live as deaf person might break him.

Duane saw Leland curled on the hospital bed he looked small and young to him in that moment. he walked in and touched Leland shoulder to get his attention and held up the dry erase board they had started using to communicate with Leland. it read : ready to go son you're all checked out.

"Yeah sure." he got the off the bed and slunk out of the room lazily.

in the car Beth drove as Duane sat in the back with Leland. "your boys want to see you." he wrote

"No." Leland stated emphatically.

"son you were on hedge for a long time they need to see with their own eyes to know your ok."

"No I'm not ready."

a few weeks later

Duane had watched Leland mope aimlessly for weeks now and had enough. he strode into elands bedroom and ripped the covers off him.

"What the fuck." Leland shouted

"get up." Duane said

"Hello dad I can't hear you remember."

Duane picked up the pen and pad Duane lee had discarded the night before. he wrote get up. get dressed I'm taking you somewhere.

when Leland was full dressed he came into the living room to see his boys on the couch.

Cobie ran up to him. "daddy your ok." he screeched happily it pained Leland to see the joy in his face and not be able to hear it in his voice. he ruffled his hair as held on tight to his waist "Hey buddy." Cobie pulled out his own pad and pen and wrote "I missed you. why didn't you want to see us?"

"I don't know anymore but I'm here now. how's school?"

"good... miss winters is nice." he wrote in response

"Dakota you ok bud your quiet..."

"Yeah fine dad are you really ok." Dakota stole the pad and wrote quickly.

"Perfectly healthy."

cobie wrote "dad you talk Really loud." and smiled letting him know he was playing.

"I need to use my inside voice huh." Leland replied tickling him.

Baby Lyssa came by and wrote on her erase board "Yeah you are like the daddy in steel magnolias after he shoots the birds."

Leland laughed "ok I get it I need volume control."

after he hung with his boys for awhile Duane took him to the Hawaii school for the deaf.

"I'm not doing this dad I won't be deaf forever."

"You don't know that you have to learn to live in the hearing world as a deaf person in order to survive and this the place to do it so get your butt outta because I will not hesitate to drag in there by your ponytail." he wrote

"Fine whatever imp going."

inside they -were greeted by a curvy little blonde her name tag read Chloe Derringer

"Hi, Leland I' Chloe I understand you are newly deaf and need to learn the ropes...I'm deaf also and will be your mentor this should be fun." she wrote then said in sign language while speaking.

no matter how pretty this girl was this was in no way going to be fun Leland thought to himself

CHAPTER 3

Chloe called a meeting with Leland's family. It was time for a little tough love.

"Okay I'm glad you all came here and I need you trust me on this I know what I'm doing. Leland is fully capable of signing but he won't he's fighting learning to live as a deaf person so I need you to communicate with him only through sign language and not anything else. I wouldn't tell you to if I thought you didn't have a good grasp of the skills." she said signing as she spoke.

"What if he retreats more into himself?" Duane asked forgetting to sign it.

"He may but he has to learn because his hearing my never return he has to learn to function deafly in a hearing world and this the only way I think of to get him to budge."

Leland was pissed off today no one was talking to him they insisted on signing instead of using the white boards. It was annoying as if he his world wasn't silent enough. Even his boys weren't giving in on this.

Lyssa walked over to where he sat on the hood of his hummer in the Hawaiian sun. She tapped his shoulder to get his attention.

"Dad asked me to ask you to please go on the bounty with us you can drive and still hunt just keep one of us with you or in your eye line Chloe said you'd do fine" she signed. While speaking. Well I might as well relent he thought. "Once more slower please…" Lyssa shot him the brightest smile he'd seen from her in awhile. She signed again. "Sorry one more time." on the third time "Sure I'll go…" he signed back and spoke at the same time

He walked in everyone started signing at once. Apparently they all needed to talk to him.

"Whoa whoa wait I can only follow one set of hands at a time." he saw Dakota setting on the couch and knew exactly what that sign meant. "I love you too bud." he responded. "I'm going today so I can translate for you." Dakota told him. what Leland was surprised to learn was that he understood the signs easily this time. Dakota had remembered to go slow just like Chloe had told him to.

Leland walked into the learning center. Chloe was squatted down in front of a boy no more than eight or nine. She motioned for him to come over. "Leland this is Luke." she signed. "Hi Luke I'm Leland." he signed and spoke. The kid was shy and seemed traumatized. After Luke left. "He's newly deaf and needs a friend a mentor of sorts. I was wondering if you'd do it." she told him.

"Sure just one thing."

"Which is? You are getting better faster by the way."

"Thanks um, would you go out with me? Maybe dinner tonight?"

"I like you so why not…so you are over me making everyone only sign to you?"

"Other than accidentally calling Dakota a donkey it was relatively easy. Seven ok?"

She laughed. He wished he could of heard it maybe one day. "Sure that sounds great Leland."


End file.
